Pair game meat and period cocktails in Colorado

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The Fort restaurant is a historically and architecturally accurate adobe replica of Bent’s Fort, a Colorado fur trading station built in 1833. It sits very close to the famed Red Rocks concert amphitheater just outside Denver. courtesy of The Fort

The Fort is an upscale fine-dining restaurant with an award-winning wine list and large outdoor patio, and it is unpretentious in its celebration of the history of the Old West. John E Poplin Photography, courtesy of The Fort

An unlikely but surprisingly tasty combo is this popular appetizer of jalapeno peppers stuffed with peanut butter and mango chutney – hot, sweet and salty all at once. Lois Ellen Frank, courtesy of The Fort

The Fort specializes in historically inspired dishes, and this is a gourmet reimagining of a macaroni and cheese pie enjoyed by Thomas Jefferson, upgraded with fine European chesses (gruyere and Parmigiana Reggiano) and rich béchamel sauce. Larry Olmsted, for USA TODAY

The Fort features an entire menu of cocktails inspired by the 19th century. The Hailstorm, said to be the first cocktail served in Colorado, is served in a mason jar with bourbon, simple syrup and mint. Larry Olmsted, for USA TODAY

Many birthdays are celebrated here, and the tradition is to have the guest don a buffalo or coyote headdress while the host recites the “Mountain Man” toast, a spectacle you will likely see if you visit. courtesy of The Fort

The entry hall at The Fort is full of photos and letters from famous patrons, a list that includes lots of musicians, athletes, actors and politicians, including several U.S. presidents. Larry Olmsted, for USA TODAY

The Fort restaurant is a historically and architecturally accurate adobe replica of Bent’s Fort, a Colorado fur trading station built in 1833. It sits very close to the famed Red Rocks concert amphitheater just outside Denver.(Photo: courtesy of The Fort)

The scene: The Fort is an old restaurant, but not as old as you might think when you go to eat there — and you should.

In 1961, amateur history buffs Sam and Elizabeth Arnold were inspired by a book they were reading about Bent’s Fort, a famous Colorado fur trading post built in 1833. The couple decided to build a recreation as their dream home in the Red Rock landscape in Morrison, Colo., just outside Denver. After bringing in a famed adobe architect from Santa Fe, a contractor from Taos, and a staff of 22 to make and assemble the 80,000 mud and straw bricks, the project went over budget. With no expertise in the industry, the Arnolds decided to solve the problem by opening a restaurant, and redesigned the plans to have an eatery downstairs, and living space above it. The Fort served its first meal in early 1963, some 55 years ago, though the architecture and all the furnishings evoke a much earlier time, as the tables, chairs, gates and doors were all hand carved by Taos artists in the same style as the 1833 originals. The menu also draws inspiration from the early 19th century, and fittingly, the Fort’s slogan is “New Foods of the Old West.”

Today, The Fort is on the National Register of Historic Places and run by the couple’s daughter, Holly Arnold Kinney, who grew up in the upstairs residence with a menagerie that included several dogs and famously, a pet bear who would occasionally join patrons for a drink at the bar. Today the upstairs hosts office space, and the bear is gone, but much of what goes on at The Fort is unchanged and frozen in time — in a very good way.

Dining here has become a rite of passage for Denver area residents, while visitors come from near and far. It was a favorite of the late, great Julia Child, who came repeatedly for the bison marrow bone. The collection of celebrity photos and letters lining the entrance passageway includes several correspondences from the White House, including George W. Bush and most recently Bill Clinton, who hosted the key participants at the 1997 Summit of Eight here (Tony Blair, Boris Yeltsin, Helmut Kohl and Jacques Chirac). The Fort sits very close to the Denver park system’s acclaimed outdoor amphitheater, Red Rocks, which has attracted a who’s who of the music industry for decades, many of whom eat here before shows, as do patrons, and the restaurant offers a prix fixe concert menu. The list of diners includes everyone from Michael Jackson to Waylon Jennings to Sheryl Crow, lots of Colorado professional athletes and actors on location nearby, such as Hugh Jackman.

The restaurant looks like a Southwestern adobe fort and is very large, seating 350 in several tiered dining rooms, on levels a few feet apart, with a bar in one corner and period decoration and collectibles everywhere. At one point the owners hired the diorama maker from the Denver Museum of Nature & Science to build displays for some of the art and artifacts. Many birthdays are celebrated here, and the tradition is to have the guest don a buffalo or coyote headdress while the host recites the “Mountain Man” toast, a spectacle you will likely see if you visit. There is a big beautiful outdoor patio overlooking the vastness of the Red Rocks countryside, and in summer, guests often start with appetizers and drinks outside.

The food: The Fort is a living museum, and that includes the menus. Dinner here is an involved affair and traditionally begins when guests receive a cocktail and appetizer menu to start with before ordering the main course. This features a list of Fur Trade Potables, historic drinks reflecting the 175-year-old taste of the Old West — despite the recent craft cocktail and mixology craze, I’ve never seen gunpowder as a drink ingredient anyplace else and here it is even organic (really). That would be the Trade Whiskey comprising bourbon with red chili pepper sauce, tobacco and the gun powder, served neat and with quite a spicy bite to it. It is an experience for the brave and curious, but frankly doesn’t taste very good. It tastes more like hot sauce than whiskey, with a weird aftertaste. Instead, I’d recommend another period drink, the rum punch, one of many margaritas such as the excellent prickly pear, or the fascinating Hailstorm, which the bar claims is historically recorded as the first cocktail ever served in Colorado. When it hailed, people would collect the ice pellets, put them in a mason jar with bourbon, simple syrup and mint, then close and shake. It’s served this way today, though the ice comes from the freezer, and the result is a sort of fun, interactive and historic mint julep. Because the restaurant was one of the first in the country to recognize the talents of winemaker Robert Mondavi and serve his wares, it's always received special allocations and built a list deep enough to earn a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence, so there really is something for everyone.

As far as food, the feature is game and especially bison (aka buffalo), with some 70,000 orders served annually. Bison has become popular nationwide in recent years, and Great American Bites previously visited the nation’s largest purveyor, the upscale Ted’s Montana Grill chain, along with other restaurants featuring this healthier and typically more naturally raised take on red meat. No other place uses the cracked roasted marrow bone as it signature dish, and it’s the starter of choice for many, with two impressive 10-inch-long bones, one split lengthwise, one crosswise, both richly delicious. If you like beef marrow you will love this — it’s obviously fatty, but surprisingly not greasy, and there are wonderful charred bits of meat on the exterior that you will want to get by picking it up and eating it like rib once you are done with the insides.

“Millennials watch the Food Network and they want to try things like bison marrow bones, it’s never sold better,” says Kinney. If you are sharing, consider the Historian’s Platter, a mix of buffalo sausage, delicious fresh-made guacamole with tortilla chips, peanut butter and mango chutney stuffed jalapeños — a weirdly perfect combo that tastes much better than it sounds — and Rocky Mountain oysters, the infamous dish of thin sliced, breaded and deep-fried cattle testicles. This normally tastes sort of like fried calamari, and here it is prepared better than usual, very tender and panko crusted, with a red pepper dip that is sort of like cocktail sauce. If that was the weirdest thing on the platter, the platter would still be offbeat, but there is one other item you probably don't see often — bison tongue crostini. The platter is available as a half or full order.

“Buffalo tongue was a very special Native American delicacy”, says Kinney, who notes that it was once up there with caviar and other haute cuisine, and in its heyday, legendary New York power spot Delmonico’s would bring in large quantities of pickled bison tongue by rail to serve its finance industry customers. Today you need to go to The Fort, where it is braised to an almost pate consistency, and served with a caper aioli on toasts.

All entrees are served with a bread basket and an unusually creative dinner salad of seven greens with pickled ginger, sliced jicama and toasted pepitas (pumpkin seeds). For mains, the buffalo prime rib, offered on weekends, is hugely popular, and the bestseller is the Game Plate, with an elk medallion, buffalo sirloin medallion and grilled teriyaki quail, served with seasonal vegetables, Fort potatoes and wild Montana huckleberry preserves. The elk is the standout here, rich, dense and dark, almost purple in color. The signature menu section is titled From the Prairie and The Forest, and is all ranch-raised Western bison (filet, smoked ribs, medallions). While there is also a full steak list, the Game Plate meats are all naturally ranched in Colorado, and other meaty options such as elk, lamb, duck and quail, along with a few seafood choices, are available. Steaks are offered normal, “incorrect style” (topped with melted Mexican cheese blend, New Mexico Dixon red chile sauce and a fried egg), or Gonzales Style (stuffed with New Mexico Hatch green chiles and topped with a freshly grilled chile pod). The one side dish not to miss is the historically “inspired” but reimagined Jefferson’s mac and cheese pudding, which combines quality European cheeses including gruyere and Parmigiana Reggiano with a béchamel sauce and New Mexico’s famous Hatch green chiles for a creamy, rich flavor explosion.

Most of the food at the Fort is good, some is great, and it is the overall experience that cannot be beat or equaled. There is a story behind every dish, and the servers, some of whom have been here for more than 30 years, are eager to spill the beans. “People ask 'how do we stay relevant?'" Kinney explains. "We do it by going back to the foods that were popular in the 19th century and improving them. Jefferson served a version of a savory pie he’d experienced in France, but he used cheddar, and we substitute gruyere and béchamel — we call it the new foods of the Old West.”

Pilgrimage-worthy?: Yes, The Fort is a one-of-a-kind dining experience through history that beckons visitors to Denver.

Larry Olmsted has been writing about food and travel for more than 15 years. An avid eater and cook, he has attended cooking classes in Italy, judged a barbecue contest and once dined with Julia Child. Follow him on Twitter, @TravelFoodGuy, and if there's a unique American eatery you think he should visit, send him an e-mail at travel@usatoday.com. Some of the venues reviewed by this column provided complimentary services.

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